Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace
is the theatrical film adaptation of the Japanese 2004 Kamen Rider series, ''Kamen Rider Blade, directed by Hidenori Ishida and Katsuya Watanabe and written by Toshiki Inoue. The film is produced by Ishimori Productions and Toei, the producers of all the previous television series and films of the Kamen Rider series. Following the tradition of all Heisei Kamen Rider movies, it is a double bill with the movie for 2004's Super Sentai series , , both of which premiered on September 11, 2004. The film's title is translated into English as Masked Rider Blade The Movie: Missing Ace. This movie takes place four years after the events of an alternate ending to the events of the final episode. The Director's Cut was released on DVD on May 21, 2005 and peaked at number 13 in the weekly Oricon chart, remaining in the list for 5 weeks. Plot Four years after an alternate ending to the series, in which Blade seals the Joker, the characters have moved on with their lives: Kenzaki is a garbage man, Mutsuki has graduated high school, and Kotaro has published a book about the Kamen Riders to great success, but on Amane's upcoming birthday, it was revealed that she has become a delinquent without the emotional support of Hajime. The Undead have been re-released, and a new trio of Kamen Riders—Glaive, Larc and Lance—have emerged from BOARD, now led by Tachibana. After recapturing two of the Category Aces, Kenzaki and Mutsuki join with the new Riders. When all the Undead are sealed once more, Glaive reveals himself to be the Albino Joker, a white version of the original Joker, and captures Kotaro's niece to obtain the ultimate power, sealing her in the Vanity Card. In order to free Amane from the card, Hajime is unsealed from the Joker Card and the four Riders are again united, intent on saving Amane and stopping the Albino Joker. In the end, Hajime swaps his life for Amane in the Vanity Card and allows himself to be destroyed by Blade to weaken Jashin 14. Blade uses his King Form to cut Jashin 14 in half, putting an end to the Undead. Continuity and Placement This movie, while mostly taking place 4 years after the end of the series, begins at the very end of the Battle Royale; where, like in series, the final battle is between Kenzaki and Hajime/Joker. However, due to several matters regarding the conclusion of the Battle Royale which are interpreted in a different way (the factor that it was the Human Undead who won the last Battle Royale, not "humanity" as stated; the nature of the Sealing Stone and, most importantly, that allowing the Joker to be the final Undead technically means he won and thus would activate the "end of the world" scenario of the series' final two episodes), this does not take place in the main series' continuity. Other element of note include the resealing of the Spider Undead, where its sealing here merely recreates the "improperly sealed" card that lead to Leangle's possession of Mutsuki; as well as the King-Level Undead seen released in this film (Girafa & Tarantula) both act like normal monsters instead of the higher, more sophisticated Undead according to their rank. Characters Kamen Riders Allies *Kotaro Shirai *Shiori Hirose *Amane Kurihara *Haruka Kurihara *Kei Karasuma Cast * : * : (under the stage name "Hironari Amano") * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : * : Guest actors * : - known for his previous role as Yuji Kiba in Kamen Rider 555 * : - known for his previous role as Kyoji Murakami in Kamen Rider 555 * : - known for his previous role as Naoya Kaido in Kamen Rider 555 Suit actors * Kamen Rider Blade: * Kamen Rider Garren: * Kamen Rider Chalice, Kamen Rider Lance: * Kamen Rider Leangle: , * Kamen Rider Glaive: * Kamen Rider Larc: Songs Theme song *"ELEMENTS" **Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi **Composition: Miki Fushisue **Composition: RIDER CHIPS & Cher Watanabe **Artist: RIDER CHIPS featuring Ricky After his performance in "ELEMENTS," Ricky was made RIDER CHIPS' permanent vocalist. Notes *This movie features the first appearance of Blade's King Form, which would debut on the series in episode 34. *The director's cut of Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace was also shown as part of the special event on TV Asahi. http://www.jefusion.com/2012/07/super-hero-max-2012-to-air-this-august.html *This is the second summer film to be premiere in September. The first summer film is Agito: Project G4. *Though only by one week, this is the first and one of the only summer movies to have had its theme song debut elsewhere before the movie was released, as ELEMENTS was first featured in the 31st episode of Blade on September 5th 2004, while the movie was released on the 11th. This is ignoring remixes of opening themes used for movie themes, as the same version of ELEMENTS was used in both places. *Due to the movie advancing four years from the timeline of the TV show, Amane Kurihara appears as a teenager as opposed to a child. The older Amane was portrayed by Miku Ishida, while Hikari Kujiwara, Amane's TV actor, only appeared in photographs. Kujiwara would later reprise her role as a much older Amane 14 years later in Kamen Rider Zi-O, by then having grown into the appropriate age. *Even though Albino Joker appeared in Kamen Rider: Battride War, replacing Joker as a recurring boss in the post-Riders Awakening Act, Blade's fight with Glaive/Albino Joker & Joker's fight with Albino Joker is featured in Kamen Rider: Battride War II. *This is the only summer film that have two directors filming the movie. *Some of the Undeads that appeared in this movie seemed out of character, with an example being the Tarantula Undead, who was good in the original Blade series to the point where he would sacrifice himself for others. *It is unknown how Kenzaki managed to obtain the Evolution Caucasus Rouze Card to access King Form, since it was combined together with the other 3 Evolution Rouze Cards to form the Vanity Card. **It is possible that when Hajime sacrificed himself to save Amane, the Evolution Caucasus card was replaced by Joker, while the human sacrifice was fulfilled by Hajime's human side (that being the essence of the Human Undead). This most likely alludes to the joker in playing cards sometimes being used as a wild card in various card games. **Another possibility is that when Hajime was sacrificed and destroyed by Blade, the Vanity Card was destroyed and split back into the 4 Evolution King Rouze Cards again. References Category:Kamen Rider Movies Category:Kamen Rider Blade Category:Summer Movies